‘Pokémon Go’: Government Surveillance App?
July 14th, 2016For commentary on this, I’d mainly offer my 2012 piece: Ingress: Google’s Strange New Game
Flash forward to 2016 and Pokémon Go offers the same soft control, but now with mass appeal.
You might be thinking, mass appeal? What? With 10-year-olds?
It turns out that in the swipetarded zombie apocalypse, “Pokémon Go tops Twitter’s daily users, sees more engagement than Facebook.”
Who cares? What’s the point?
Essentially, spooks can get eyes-on places by directing swarms of zombies with mobile phones to seek out digital creatures and baubles at desired locations. Sure catch your Squirtle—while pointing your camera at a Hell’s Angels headquarters, for example.
*wink*
I’d also recommend my ancient (2007) post, The American Culture Bomb: Satire from the Onion and a Long Forgotten U.S. Army War College Essay, which is more important than ever.
“Our victims volunteer.”
DNC Staffer Murdered
July 14th, 2016Here’s a thread on Reddit about Rich.
Via: NBC:
A 27-year-old man who worked for the Democratic National Committee was shot and killed as he walked home early Sunday in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C., police and his family said.
Seth Conrad Rich died after he was shot multiple times on the 2100 block of Flagler Place NW, three blocks east of Howard University Hospital, police said.
CDC Executive Resigns After Being Caught Colluding With Coca-Cola to Salvage Soda Market
July 14th, 2016Via: Mercola:
Recent media reports have now revealed devastating evidence showing a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) executive aided a Coca-Cola representative in efforts to influence World Health Organization (WHO) officials to relax recommendations on sugar limits.1
In March 2015, WHO published a new sugar guideline that specifically targeted sugary beverages, calling them out as a primary cause for childhood obesity around the world, especially in developing nations, where the soda industry is now aggressively expanding its reach.
WHO’s recommendation to limit soda consumption was a huge blow to an already beleaguered soda industry, struggling to maintain a declining market share amid mounting evidence identifying sweetened drinks as a primary contributor to the obesity and diabetes epidemics.
The damning email correspondence between Coca-Cola and the CDC was obtained by the nonprofit consumer education group U.S. Right to Know (USRTK).2 According to PhillyVoice:3
“The emails were between Barbara Bowman, Ph.D. director of the CDC’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, and Dr. Alex Malaspina, a former Coca-Cola scientific and regulatory affairs leader and the founder of a food industry-funded group, International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI).
They allegedly show Bowman’s multiple attempts to aid Malaspina’s relationship with WHO leaders whose actions (think soda tax) were hurting the beverage industry.
According to the report, Bowman — whose job is to try to help prevent obesity, diabetes and other health problems — ‘appeared happy to help the beverage industry cultivate political sway with the World Health Organization.'”
CNN Cuts Off Reporter When She Mentions Hillary’s Role in Mass Incarceration
July 14th, 2016Via: CNN:
64 Women to Sue in Three Japanese Courts Over Health Woes from Cervical Cancer Vaccines
July 13th, 2016Via: The Japan Times:
A group of lawyers for 64 women who are suffering health problems from cervical cancer vaccines said Tuesday the victims will file damages lawsuits against the government and two drugmakers that produced the vaccines through four district courts on July 27.
Of the 64 women, 28 will lodge their suit with the Tokyo District Court, six with the Nagoya District Court, 16 with the Osaka District Court and 14 with the Fukuoka District Court, according to the lawyers.
Initially, the victims, mainly teenagers, will demand ¥15 million in damages each, for a total of ¥960 million, and increase the amount later depending on their symptoms. The victims’ health problems include pain all over the body.
The average age of the 28 planning to file their suit with the Tokyo court is 18. They received the vaccination when they were between 11 and 16 years old.
Noting that the cervical cancer vaccines have caused nerve disorders and other problems due to the excessive immune reactions they caused, the lawyers claimed that the government’s approval of the ineffective vaccines was illegal. The drugmakers bear product liability, they added.
U.S. Officials Refuse to Comment on Reports That CIA Weapons for Syria “Rebels” Stolen Again
July 13th, 2016I don’t know who this is or when it happened, but it’s at the U.S. State Department. If you look in the background, the screen says state.gov.
In any event, this is definitely one for your Not The Onion file folder.
Via: WTFRLY:
Photographer Sneaks Into Fukushima Exclusion Zone
July 13th, 2016Via: Daily Mail:
More than five years after the devastating tsunami and the 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck north-eastern Japan, causing the explosion of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, the Japanese town remains abandoned.
Since April 22, 2011, an area within 20km (12.4miles) radius of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant has been cordoned off from the public and listed as the red exclusion zone.
But now, Malaysian photographer Keow Wee Loong has entered into the exclusion zone to capture these eerie images.
Bernie: Vote for Hillary
July 12th, 2016Bernie probably held out so long because he thought Hillary was going to be prosecuted.
Nope, didn’t happen. Now go vote for her.
Via: CNN:
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders formally declared an end to their political rivalry Tuesday, joining forces to take on a shared enemy: Donald Trump.
Hague Rules Against Beijing on South China Sea Claims
July 12th, 2016…China throws toys.
Via: Guardian:
China has lost a key international legal case over strategic reefs and atolls that it claims would give it control over disputed waters of the South China Sea.
The judgment by an international tribunal in The Hague is overwhelmingly in favour of claims by the Philippines and will increase global diplomatic pressure on Beijing to scale back military expansion in the sensitive area. By depriving certain outcrops of territorial-generating status, the ruling effectively punches holes in China’s all-encompassing “nine-dash” line that stretches deep into the South China Sea.
China reacted angrily to the verdict, which declares large areas of the sea to be neutral international waters or the exclusive economic zones of other countries. Xinhua, the country’s official news agency, hit out at what it described as an “ill-founded” ruling that was “naturally null and void”.
The Communist party mouthpiece newspaper the People’s Daily said in an editorial that the tribunal had ignored “basic truths” and “tramped” on international laws and norms. “The Chinese government and the Chinese people firmly oppose [the ruling] and will neither acknowledge it nor accept it,” it added.
Pentagon Sending Hundreds More Troops to Iraq
July 11th, 2016Via: Reuters:
The United States is stepping up its military campaign against Islamic State (IS) by sending hundreds more troops to assist Iraqi forces in an expected push on Mosul, the militants’ largest stronghold, later this year.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter made the announcement on Monday during a visit to Baghdad where he met U.S. commanders as well as Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi.
Most of the 560 troop reinforcements will work out of Qayara air base, which Iraqi forces recaptured from Islamic State and plan to use as a staging ground for an offensive to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second biggest city.
